Gas drilling protests held in US, other countries

Associated Press: Demonstrators in the United States and other countries protested Saturday against the natural gas drilling process known as fracking that they say threatens public health and the environment. Participants in the "Global Frackdown" campaign posted photos on social media websites showing mostly small groups. But organizer Mark Schlosberg said Saturday afternoon he thought the protests were going well and he pointed to photos showing larger demonstrations in South Africa and France as well as...

URL: http://news.yahoo.com/gas-drilling-protests-held-us-other-countries-225745136.html
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Shell attacked over four-year delay in Niger oil spill clean-up

Guardian: Two large crude oil spills from Shell pipelines in the Niger delta four years ago have still not been cleaned up by the company despite an outcry by the UN, Amnesty International and the Nigerian government about pollution in the area. Shell, which made £19.1bn profit last year, accepted responsiblity and pledged to fully restore the damage done by spills from its rusting pipelines near the Ogoni village of Bodo in 2008. But an assessment has found only small pilot schemes were started and...

URL: http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2012/sep/23/shell-attacked-niger-oil-spill-clean-up-delay
Enclosure: http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/guardian/About/General/2012/9/22/1348322112986/Protester-with-hands-cove-010.jpg

Forget the Melting Arctic, Sea Ice in Antarctica is Growing!

Climate Central: The sea ice that covers the Arctic Ocean has plummeted to its lowest level on record -- but down at the other end of the world, the sea ice surrounding Antarctica has swelled. That's no surprise, considering that winter is just ending in the Southern Hemisphere -- but what may be surprising is that the overall extent of Antarctic ice has grown by about one percent per decade, on average, since satellite records began a little over 30 years ago. You might reasonably suspect that all the fuss about...

URL: http://www.climatecentral.org/news/forget-the-melting-arctic-the-sea-ice-in-antarctica-is-growing-skeptics-say-15032?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+climatecentral%2FdjOO+Climate+Central+-+Full+Feed
Enclosure: http://www.climatecentral.org/images/uploads/news/9_21_12_mike_antarcticicegrowth.png

Scientists trace climate change in cave's stalagmites

Salt Lake Tribune: For seemingly endless miles in every direction above and around the caves, drought is blighting the simmering-hot desert. In contrast, life inside the mile-long cave network relies on steady 50-degree temperatures and dank air. Photos Join the Discussion Post a Comment Read All Comments (2) But Gretchen Baker, an author and park ecologist, explains that inside and outside are intimately related and always have been. To see a sign of the record drought outside, she shows visitors to two popular...

URL: http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/news/54935816-78/caves-climate-outside-broecker.html.csp

Wind Sprints to the Cliff

New York Times: The wind industry's main trade association is predicting that new installations will fall to zero without a renewal of the production tax credit, which applies only to projects finished by New Year's Eve. Since renewal is iffy, some wind machine factories are already shutting down, as my colleague Diane Cardwell reported on Friday. From another perspective, this is the moment for the feast before the famine: the impending deadline means that a surge of projects are approaching completion. On...

URL: http://green.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/09/22/wind-sprints-to-the-cliff/

Congo could allow oil exploitation in parks: minister

Reuters: The Democratic Republic of Congo will allow exploration work inside Africa's oldest national park if significant oil deposits are found there, the country's hydrocarbons minister said on Saturday. Congo is keen to expand its underdeveloped oil sector, which currently produces only 26,000 barrels a day despite oil-rich areas in both the east and west of the country. British oil company Soco International was earlier this year given permission to carry out aerial surveys on Block 5, a block of...

URL: http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/09/22/us-congo-democratic-minister-idUSBRE88L08120120922?feedType=RSS&feedName=environmentNews&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+reuters%2Fenvironment+%28News+%2F+US+%2F+Environment%29

Germany's biofuel crop concerns

BBC: As food prices around the world continue to rise, environmentalists say the problem is being made worse by the increased amount of farm land being used to grow biofuels. In Germany, shepherds say their traditional way of farming is under threat as meadows they have always used for grazing are being turned over to biofuel crops. Meanwhile farmers who grow both food and fuel crops have found they cannot sell their food crops for a decent price, and can only stay in business if they sell it for fuel...

URL: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-19688358#sa-ns_mchannel=rss&ns_source=PublicRSS20-sa

Senate passes bill to shield US airlines from EU carbon-emissions law

Reuters: The US Senate unanimously passed a bill on Saturday that would shield US airlines from paying for their carbon emissions on European flights, pressuring the European Union to back down from applying its emissions law to foreign carriers. Since January, the European Commission has been enforcing its law to make all airlines take part in its Emissions Trading Scheme, which aims to combat global warming. The Senate approved the bill shortly after midnight, as it scrambled to complete business...

URL: http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2012/sep/22/senate-bill-us-airlines-eu-carbon-emissions-laws

Climate change impacts polar bears as sea ice continues to shrink

Women News Network: The extent of Arctic sea ice this week shrunk to a new low in the era of satellite record-keeping that began in 1979. The increased expanse of water near the top of the world could have implications for global shipping, wildlife and even international diplomacy. Polar bears hunt seals from sea ice, but could drown if forced to swim long distances in open water. Satellite photos released by America's space agency, NASA, illustrate the daunting threat to such bears. An image shows the amount of Arctic...

URL: http://womennewsnetwork.net/2012/09/22/climate-change-polar-bears-sea-ice/

Idaho wildfire roars through former uranium mine site

Reuters: A wildfire in east-central Idaho has burned through three former mining sites containing traces of radioactive thorium and uranium and was advancing a fourth such site on Thursday, but state officials said they believed the risk to human health was low. As a precaution, state environmental authorities planned to take air samples in North Fork, a small community in the fire zone north of Salmon, to assess any radioactive hazards posed by fire damage to the sites. One area of concern is a defunct...

URL: http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/09/21/us-usa-wildfires-idUSBRE88K06320120921?feedType=RSS&feedName=environmentNews&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+reuters%2Fenvironment+%28News+%2F+US+%2F+Environment%29

Primetime Fox News And WSJ Editorial Climate Coverage Mostly Wrong

Scientific American: "We were following up on anecdotal and peer reviewed assessments to date that suggested that there was bias and misrepresentation at the News Corporation of the fact that human-induced climate change is happening, the vast scientific evidence that's out there." Brenda Ekwurzel is a climate scientist with the Union of Concerned Scientists. She announced in New York City on September 21st the results of an analysis of climate change coverage at two major properties of the News Corporation, the Fox...

URL: http://news.yahoo.com/primetime-fox-news-wsj-editorial-climate-coverage-mostly-231708801.html
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Federal officials: Climate change hits home

Durango Herald: Hotter temperatures, shorter winters, more beetles, larger wildfires and dwindling fiscal resources: This is the sobering future in store for U.S. forests, according to two government officials. In a meeting Thursday with the editorial board of The Durango Herald, Harris Sherman, undersecretary of natural resources and environment at the U.S. Department of Agriculture, and Mark Stiles, San Juan National Forest supervisor, laid out the climate and budgetary challenges woodlands in Colorado – and...

URL: http://durangoherald.com/article/20120920/NEWS01/120929938/0/s/Federal-officials:-Climate-change-hits-home

Vanished Ancient Forest Could Return With Global Warming

redOrbit: Bylot Island, in the Canadian Nunavut territory, is one of the largest uninhabited islands in the world. A study by Alexandre Guertin-Pasquier of the University of Montreal`s Department of Geography reveals that the ancient forests recently discovered on Bylot Island could one day return because of global climate changes. Pasquier is presented his findings at the Canadian Paleontology Conference in Toronto September 21. "According to the data model, climate conditions on Bylot Island will be...

URL: http://www.redorbit.com/news/science/1112699026/ancient-forest-returns-with-global-warming-092212/
Enclosure: http://www.redorbit.com/media/uploads/2012/09/NanuvatForest_092212-617x416.jpg

Amazon deforestation jumps in August

Mongabay: Satellite imagery released by the Brazil's National Space Research Institute (INPE) reveals a sharp jump in deforestation during the month of August. The new data, released with little fanfare and without the usual press release on INPE's homepage, was first highlighted by O Eco, a Brazilian environmental news site. Some 522 sq km of Amazon rainforest was cleared in the month of August, an increase of 220 percent over August a year ago, according to INPE's near-real time deforestation detection...

URL: http://news.mongabay.com/2012/0921-brazil_aug_12.html
Enclosure: http://mongabay-images.s3.amazonaws.com/12/0921deter.jpg

Senate votes to shield US airlines from EU's carbon scheme

Reuters: The Senate unanimously passed a bill on Saturday that would shield U.S. airlines from paying for their carbon emissions on European flights, pressuring the European Union to back down from applying its emissions law to foreign carriers. The European Commission has been enforcing its law since January to make all airlines take part in its Emissions Trading Scheme to combat global warming, prompting threats of a trade fight. The Senate approved the bill shortly after midnight, as it scrambled...

URL: http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/09/22/us-usa-carbon-airlines-idUSBRE88L06C20120922?feedType=RSS&feedName=environmentNews&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+reuters%2Fenvironment+%28News+%2F+US+%2F+Environment%29

5 UNL scientists seek steps on climate change

Omaha World-Herald: Five University of Nebraska-Lincoln climate scientists released a joint statement Friday calling for action on climate change. Nebraska is in the midst of its warmest and second driest year on record, and as a result has seen a destructive summer of drought, fire and agricultural losses. But it's not this year's debilitating weather that prompted the statement, the scientists say. Rather, it's the ongoing public confusion over the degree of scientific certainty surrounding climate change....

URL: http://www.omaha.com/article/20120922/NEWS09/709229906/1016

Climate change group forming across valley

Mail Tribune: With apologies to Mark Twain, "Everyone talks about climate change, but nobody does anything about it." But retired university professor Alan Journet and others concerned about climate change - Twain was referring to the weather in his famous 1897 quote in the Hartford (Conn.) Courant newspaper - have decided to do more than merely talk. They are launching a non-partisan group tentatively dubbed the Rogue Valley Climate Protection Organization. The goal, said Journet, who lives near Jacksonville,...

URL: http://www.mailtribune.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20120922/NEWS/209220308

Miliband pledges to green electricity supply by 2030

BusinessGreen: Labour will today become the first UK political party to commit to decarbonising the power sector by 2030, with leader Ed Miliband warning the British economy is "desperately in search of new sources of growth." In an article to be published in think-tank Green Alliance's journal Inside Track today, Miliband will also urge the UK government to play a more active role in boosting the low carbon economy by investing in new technologies and setting stringent targets. Green groups have raised concerns...

URL: http://www.businessgreen.com/bg/news/2207393/miliband-pledges-to-green-electricity-supply-by-2030?WT.rss_f=Home&WT.rss_a=Miliband+pledges+to+green+electricity+supply+by+2030

New York State’s Decision on Hydrofracking Will Await Health Review

New York Times: After four years of study by the state, the Cuomo administration now says its decision on whether to allow high-volume hydraulic fracturing in New York will have to wait until it conducts a review of the potential public health effects of the controversial natural gas drilling process. On Thursday, Joseph Martens, commissioner of the State Department of Environmental Conservation, announced that he had asked the health commissioner, Dr. Nirav Shah, to assess his department's analysis of the health...

URL: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/21/nyregion/new-york-states-decision-on-hydrofracking-will-await-health-review.html

Japan-U.S. developed smart grid goes live in New Mexico

Japan Daily Press: A $52 million smart grid project focusing on solar power, energy storage, and electric grid management has gone live in Los Alamos, New Mexico, after being co-developed by a consortium of U.S. and Japanese companies. Among the Japanese participants include tech giants like Kyocera, Toshiba, and Hitachi, along with several government groups from both countries, all focusing on how to solve the problems around gathering more renewable energies and how to add them to existing power supply grids. The...

URL: http://japandailypress.com/japan-u-s-developed-smart-grid-goes-live-in-new-mexico-2112852

John Kerry on Why We Need Fossil Fuels (For Now) and Climate Action (For Real!)

Grist: Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.), who could become the next secretary of state if President Obama wins reelection, sees climate change as a serious threat to national security: It`s "as dangerous as" the possibility of a nuclear Iran or the situation in Syria, he said on the Senate floor in August. And in his speech at the Democratic convention this month, Kerry, chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said, "an exceptional country does care about the rise of the oceans and the future of the...

URL: http://grist.org/politics/john-kerry-on-why-we-need-fossil-fuels-for-now-and-climate-action-for-real/
Enclosure: http://grist.files.wordpress.com/2012/09/john-kerry-pointing.jpg?w=250&h=166

Arctic Ice Minimum

Environmental News Network: The Arctic is especially vulnerable to the effects of global warming, as has become apparent in the melting sea ice in recent years. Climate models predict much greater warming in the Arctic than the global average, resulting in significant attention to the region. In particular, there are concerns that Arctic shrinkage, a consequence of melting glaciers and other ice in Greenland, could contribute to a substantial rise in sea levels worldwide. Arctic sea ice cover likely melted to its minimum extent...

URL: http://www.enn.com/climate/article/44978?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+ClimateChangeNews-Enn+%28Climate+Change+News+-+ENN%29

BASIC group calls for adoption of "Kyoto 2" in Doha

Reuters: Ministers from Brazil, India, China and South Africa called for an extension of the Kyoto Protocol, the world's only treaty that forces countries to cut greenhouse gas emissions, which expires at the end of the year. The emerging economies, who form the BASIC bloc, met in Brazil's capital Brasilia on Thursday and Friday to discuss their common negotiating position for the upcoming climate talks in Doha, Qatar, in November. They said a new Kyoto commitment period should start on January 1 and...

URL: http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/09/21/us-brazil-climate-idUSBRE88K1AA20120921?feedType=RSS&feedName=environmentNews&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+reuters%2Fenvironment+%28News+%2F+US+%2F+Environment%29
Enclosure: http://s1.reutersmedia.net/resources/r/?m=02&d=20120921&t=2&i=655524923&w=&fh=&fw=&ll=700&pl=300&r=CBRE88K1NUJ00

Going for the record: Can anything stop 2012 from being warmest ever?

Christian Science Monitor: As the US heads into the final three months of the year, 2012 is likely to end up as the warmest year on record for the lower 48 states, according to an analysis from the federal government's National Climatic Data Center. That would mark the fourth time in the last 14 years that annual average temperatures for the continental US either set records or flirted with them – a cluster unmatched since the 1930s. Since January, year-to-date temperatures for the continental US have consistently run...

URL: http://www.csmonitor.com/Environment/2012/0920/Going-for-the-record-Can-anything-stop-2012-from-being-warmest-ever
Enclosure: http://www.csmonitor.com/var/ezflow_site/storage/images/media/content/2012/0920-going-for-record-2012-warmest-ever/13816407-1-eng-US/0920-going-for-record-2012-warmest-ever_full_380.jpg

Householders unlikely to recover green heating installation costs for 30 years

Guardian: The amount of money householders can expect to be paid for fitting "green heating" was published for the first time on Thursday, revealing most homeowners installing solar hot water systems are unlikely to recoup their initial outlay for more than 30 years. The renewable heat incentive (RHI) will reward households for each unit of low-carbon heat generated from solar thermal panels and other renewable heating systems such as biomass boilers and ground-source heat pumps. The scheme was due to...

URL: http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2012/sep/21/householders-green-heating-costs
Enclosure: http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Environment/Pix/columnists/2012/9/21/1348222234516/Preparing-the-pipework-fr-008.jpg

Was This Summer A Climate Change Event?

Scientific American: Was the extreme heat and dryness of the summer of 2012 the result of climate change? "It's the old problem of saying any one event is the result of climate change." That's James McCarthy, professor of biological oceanography at Harvard and current president of the board of the Union of Concerned Scientists, speaking September 21st in New York City at an event hosted by the Union. "We have been locked in a two year now strong La Nina cycle. The La Nina cycle brings more aridity to the center...

URL: http://www.scientificamerican.com/podcast/episode.cfm?id=was-this-summer-a-climate-change-ev-12-09-21
Enclosure: http://www.scientificamerican.com/podcast/podcast.mp3?e_id=2C5E53D7-99A7-E32C-E0FDC1E187879388

No role for UK shale gas, say green groups

BusinessGreen: Green groups have slammed a report claiming shale gas could provide 10 per cent of the UK's gas supply for over a century. The Institute of Directors (IoD) says there is sufficient supply of the controversial energy source to offset 60 per cent of the predicted decline in gas reserves, while building an industry capable of supporting 35,000 jobs. It adds switching from coal-fired generation to shale gas would reduce UK emissions by 45 million tonnes of CO2, some eight per cent of the country's...

URL: http://www.businessgreen.com/bg/news/2207253/no-role-for-uk-shale-gas-say-green-groups?WT.rss_f=Home&WT.rss_a=No+role+for+UK+shale+gas%2C+say+green+groups

Sharp drop in number of UK homes installing solar panels

Guardian: The number of UK homes installing solar panels has fallen dramatically since the start of August, following a cut in subsidy rates by the government. Figures published on Friday show a huge rush by householders aiming to install panels before a 1 August government deadline, followed by a huge drop. There was nearly three-quarters less capacity installed in the past six weeks than the equivalent weeks in 2011 for the feed-in tariff scheme, which pays householders for generating green energy. The...

URL: http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2012/sep/21/drop-uk-homes-solar-panels
Enclosure: http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Environment/Pix/columnists/2012/3/5/1330946532027/A-worker-fits-solar-panel-007.jpg

The 'big melt' at the roof of the world

BBC: Dig into the history of polar exploration and you might wonder what all the fuss is about with this month's news of a record sea-ice melt in the Arctic. In 1893, the Norwegian explorer Fridtjof Nansen ventured through the "titanic forces" of the ice, amid the "howlings and thunderings" of the floes splitting around his ship, the Fram, but then found himself in a stretch of open water. The same had happened the day before. And this was within striking distance of the North Pole - Nansen eventually...

URL: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-19675912#sa-ns_mchannel=rss&ns_source=PublicRSS20-sa
Enclosure: http://news.bbcimg.co.uk/media/images/63033000/jpg/_63033596_iceberg.jpg

Despite Little Mention Of Climate Change From Candidates, Faith Groups Pledge To Make It An Election Issue

ThinkProgress: This week, the National Climate Summit 2013 Coalition released a petition calling on both Presidential candidates to address rapidly accelerating climate change. The statement, written and endorsed by over 1300 faith leaders, elected officials, civil rights groups, environmental activists, business representatives, and others, calls on both Presidential candidates to "act in the best interests of this and all future generations of American's now by publicly acknowledging the climate emergency";...

URL: http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2012/09/21/888691/despite-little-talk-from-candidates-on-climate-change-faith-groups-pledge-to-make-it-an-election-issue/?mobile=nc

New forest map shows 6% of Amazon deforested between 2000 and 2010

Mongabay: An update to one of the most comprehensive maps of the Amazon basin shows that forest cover across the world's largest rainforest declined by about six percent between 2000 and 2010. But the map also reveals hopeful signs that recognition of protected areas and native lands across the eight countries and one department that make up the Amazon is improving, with conservation and indigenous territories now covering nearly half of its land mass. The map was produced by RAISG, a joint effort between...

URL: http://news.mongabay.com/2012/0921-raisg-amazon-map.html
Enclosure: http://raisg.socioambiental.org/system/files/ENGLISH-reduzido.jpg

Biodiesel industry dealt a blow by EU policy changes

Guardian: Europe's multibillion-euro biodiesel industry has been dealt a blow by major policy changes outlined by the EU climate commissioner on Friday. The changes proposed by Connie Hedegaard will limit food-based biofuels to 5%, just above the current output of 4.5%. Green campaigners, who see biodiesel as doing more harm than good, hailed the move as a major victory for the environment. But the biodiesel industry condemned what it sees as a catastrophic U-turn that will cost thousands of jobs. The...

URL: http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2012/sep/21/biodiesel-industry-eu-policy-changes
Enclosure: http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Environment/Pix/columnists/2012/7/17/1342520094670/MDG--UNCTAD--Foreign-inve-006.jpg

With Extreme Weather, Will Insurers Come to the Rescue?

Climate Central: Following a damaging episode of extreme weather, communities turn to insurance companies to help them rebuild, but with costly extreme weather and climate events on the rise as the climate continues to warm, insurers may stop coming to the rescue, a new report warns. The report from Ceres, a nonprofit group that advocates for sustainable business practices, calls attention to the threat that extreme weather events pose to the sustainability of the insurance industry, which has been hit hard by...

URL: http://www.climatecentral.org/news/global-warming-related-extreme-weather-will-insurers-come-to-the-rescue-15028?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+climatecentral%2FdjOO+Climate+Central+-+Full+Feed
Enclosure: http://www.climatecentral.org/images/uploads/news/9-21_AF_hurricaneinsurance.png

Visualizing 2012’s Record Arctic Sea Ice Melt

Climate Central: The National Snow and Ice Data Center announced on September 19 that Arctic sea ice had reached its minimum extent for 2012 -- and that minimum was drastically lower than the previous record, set in 2007, by an area about the size of Texas. On average, more and more sea ice has been melting each summer, with widespread implications for the rest of the world. Studies show that most of the modern sea ice melt is most likely largely due to manmade global warming. When white, highly reflective ice...

URL: http://www.climatecentral.org/blogs/images-of-2012s-record-arctic-sea-ice-melt-15026?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+climatecentral%2FdjOO+Climate+Central+-+Full+Feed

A Risky Climate for Big Dams in Africa

Huffington Post: Climate change is bringing many uncertainties, especially to the world of water. No continent will be harder hit by climate change than Africa. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has stated that African river basins will be especially affected by climate change, and are expected to face worse droughts and more extreme floods as a result. Yet across the continent, large dams are being planned with no understanding of how a changing climate will affect them - and little attention to the...

URL: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/lori-pottinger/a-risky-climate-for-big-d_b_1901065.html
Enclosure: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IN0YvxVdNSU&feature=youtu.be

Mixed Reactions on N.Y. Fracking Decision

New York Times: Reaction to Thursday's announcement by the Cuomo administration that New York State must review potential public health effects before deciding whether to allow fracking is split along fairly predictable lines. Gas industry officials and landowners who want to lease their properties for this kind of natural gas drilling said they were disappointed because the move means that fracking won't start anytime soon in New York. Still, some said they were relieved that the state — and not outside experts,...

URL: http://green.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/09/21/mixed-reactions-on-n-y-fracking-decision/

We Saved The Ozone Layer. We Can Save The Climate

ThinkProgress: Climate change is not the first planetary pollution crisis we have faced. That distinction belongs to the depletion of the earth's protective ozone layer. This Sunday marks the 25th anniversary of the signing of the world's most successful environmental treaty, the Montreal Protocol. That's the treaty that saved the ozone layer, saved millions of lives, and avoided a global catastrophe. We too often take the rescue of the ozone layer for granted. A whole generation has grown up not hearing...

URL: http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2012/09/21/890571/we-saved-the-ozone-layer-we-can-save-the-climate/?mobile=nc
Enclosure: http://thinkprogress.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/ozone-depletion-300x228.jpg

Printing Solar Panels In The Backyard

National Public Radio: With crowd-sourced funding through Kickstarter, a team of inventors are building a Solar Pocket Factory: a machine designed to print micro solar panels—like the ones used in phone chargers and garden lights. Co-inventor Shawn Frayne stopped by Flora Lichtman's backyard with a few pieces of the prototype to explain how the machine works.

URL: http://www.npr.org/2012/09/21/161551774/printing-solar-panels-in-the-backyard?ft=1&f=1025
Enclosure: http://www.npr.org/player/v2/mediaPlayer.html?action=1&t=1&islist=false&id=161551774&m=161551765

United Kingdom: The Tories are clean out of their mind to want new gas plants

Telegraph: "Energy,' held William Blake, "is eternal delight.' But ministers might note this weekend that he put the aphorism, in The Marriage of Heaven and Hell, in the voice of the Devil. For the issue is set to split the Coalition in the party conference season that begins this weekend, pitting two of the Government's closest allies against each other. The Chancellor, George Osborne, and Danny Alexander, his deputy, are poised to go head to head over how to power the economy. More than £100 billion is...

URL: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/energy/gas/9557916/The-Tories-are-clean-out-of-their-mind-to-want-new-gas-plants.html
Enclosure: http://i.telegraph.co.uk/multimedia/archive/02347/sutton_2347312b.jpg

Easier Distributed Interconnect Emerges in California

 The California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) last week handed developers of mid-sized, wholesale renewable energy systems, primarily solar, an important revision to its interconnection procedures, known as Rule 21.

URL: http://www.renewableenergyworld.com/rea/news/article/2012/09/easier-distributed-interconnect-emerges-in-california?cmpid=rss

What’s Wrong With This Window Installation?

Subtitle:&nbsp_place_holder;

The latest entry in our ongoing series, 'What's Wrong With This Picture?'

Images:&nbsp_place_holder;

[](http://www.greenbuildingadvisor.com/blogs/dept/green-building-blog/what-s-wrong-window-installation)

[](http://www.greenbuildingadvisor.com/blogs/dept/green-building-blog/what-s-wrong-window-installation)

Readers are invited to identify as many installation errors they can spot in the attached photo of a window installed in the rough opening of a new home.

This is the latest in our ongoing series,"What's Wrong With This Picture?" (To see two previous photos in the series, click the links in the box below.)

The photo comes from James Steacy of IBACOS (a [Building America program](http://www1.eere.energy.gov/buildings/residential/ba_index.html) partner in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania).

URL: http://www.greenbuildingadvisor.com/blogs/dept/green-building-blog/what-s-wrong-window-installation

What is the "Right Size" for Solar Companies?

 Traditional consolidation in industries suffering from overcapacity typically sees stronger companies merge and weaker ones close, resulting in a healthier, more sustainable sector where everyone is profitable. But such conventional "right sizing" is less common in China, where struggling companies in strategic industries are often kept alive throu

URL: http://www.renewableenergyworld.com/rea/blog/post/2012/09/what-is-the-right-size-for-solar-companies?cmpid=rss

ABB Pulls Investment from GreenVolts: Will this Trend Continue?

 News of ABB pulling its $20 million investment in GreenVolts hit the SPI show floor last week, dampening the electric excitement of President Clinton's keynote address. With so much consolidation, solar company bankruptcies and disappointing political support for solar in the past year, it is difficult to see the future of solar power, and ABB is hitting its brakes before it witnesses another accident.

URL: http://www.renewableenergyworld.com/rea/news/article/2012/09/abb-pulls-away-from-greenvolts-will-this-trend-continue?cmpid=rss

U.K. Proposes Incentives for Home Heating From Biomass to Solar

 The U.K proposed paying householders to generate heat from renewable sources, opening a public consultation.

URL: http://www.renewableenergyworld.com/rea/news/article/2012/09/u-k-proposes-incentives-for-home-heating-from-pumps-to-solar?cmpid=rss

China's Wen Urges EU to Avoid Tariffs Amid Solar-Panel Probe

 Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao pressed the European Union to avoid erecting trade barriers amid an EU threat to impose tariffs on solar panels from China.

URL: http://www.renewableenergyworld.com/rea/news/article/2012/09/chinas-wen-urges-eu-to-avoid-tariffs-amid-solar-panel-probe?cmpid=rss

Syngenta says drought-hardy corn did well in U.S

Reuters: Syngenta's drought-tolerant corn seeds performed "extraordinarily well" in a limited planting during the United States' worst drought in half a century, the Swiss company said on Friday. The world's largest agrochemicals company launched its Agrisure Artesian corn variety this year, expecting a 15 percent higher yield compared with traditional varieties that are not designed to do well during water shortages. "Everything we see visually and the testing we do pre-harvest gives us enormous encouragement...

URL: http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/09/21/us-syngenta-corn-seeds-idUSBRE88K0BJ20120921?feedType=RSS&feedName=environmentNews&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+reuters%2Fenvironment+%28News+%2F+US+%2F+Environment%29

Brazil, South Africa, India and China discuss climate change

Associated Press: Representatives of Brazil, South Africa, India and China are meeting to define a common position ahead of November's United Nations' climate change conference in Doha. The four countries form the bloc known as BASIC that acts jointly in international climate change meetings. Brazilian negotiator Luiz Alberto Figueiredo says one of the main topics being discussed in the meeting that ends on Friday is the future of the 1997 emission- limiting Kyoto Protocol that requires industrialized countries...

URL: http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/brazil-south-africa-india-and-china-discuss-climate-change/2012/09/20/286f6764-0347-11e2-9132-f2750cd65f97_story.html

Panel Discusses Options to Fund Worker Training, Ensure Standards

 A recent fire at a big-box retailer in California linked to a faulty solar installation highlights a key concern for the booming U.S. solar industry: how to develop a qualified workforce and finance worker training.

URL: http://www.renewableenergyworld.com/rea/news/article/2012/09/panel-discusses-options-to-fund-worker-training-ensure-standards?cmpid=rss

Car Manufacturers Seek a Solar Boost

 Like the rest of us, advocates for renewables can fail to spot their true friends. Fans of the recent blockbuster Avatar might imagine that ecosystems get rescued by dreadlocked tree-huggers while the film's bad guys are on the ecological frontline. Buzzcuts and heavy weaponry may jar with climate change aesthetics, but back on planet Earth, though, the US military is now spearheading the global assault on carbon emissions on a range of fronts, including solar power.

URL: http://www.renewableenergyworld.com/rea/news/article/2012/09/carmakers-seek-a-solar-boost?cmpid=rss

Renewing Investment in Renewables: The Power of Policy

 Policy has a profound, positive and lasting effect on driving investment and growth in renewable energy technology and deployment. Regulatory policy that creates financial incentives to invest in renewable energy technologies, or that establishes national and state renewable energy targets and standards, has a direct and proportional impact on the amount of investment in renewable energy by both public and private investors.

URL: http://www.renewableenergyworld.com/rea/news/article/2012/09/renewing-investment-in-renewables-the-power-of-policy?cmpid=rss

Hamm: Solar Industry and Utilities Don't Speak the Same Language…Yet

 To kick off SPI, I sat down with the Solar Electric Power Association's Julia Hamm at Solar Central on the SPI tradeshow floor for a quick interview (watch the full video interview below). I wanted to hear mostly about how utilities are continuing to evolve their business plans to incorporate more solar.

URL: http://www.renewableenergyworld.com/rea/news/article/2012/09/hamm-solar-industry-and-utilities-dont-speak-the-same-languageyet?cmpid=rss

The Natural Gas Revolution: Good or Bad for Energy Efficiency?

 If there were an equivalent in the energy industry to Time Magazine's Person of the Year, natural gas would be this year's winner. The dramatic rise in natural gas supply, and fall in price, has reconfigured the energy scene in the United States, suddenly creating a bounty of domestic energy, driving down wholesale power prices and speeding retirem

URL: http://www.renewableenergyworld.com/rea/blog/post/2012/09/the-natural-gas-revolution-good-or-bad-for-energy-efficiency?cmpid=rss

California regulator defends CO2 market design

Reuters: California's top air regulator offered a stern defense of the state's forthcoming carbon cap-and-trade system, battling back against complaints from industry that it will cost jobs and drive up consumer prices at a hearing on Thursday. Industry and manufacturing groups that have opposed the carbon market said at a meeting held by the state's air regulator in Sacramento that the program was poorly designed, and complained that their input has been ignored. Mary Nichols, chair of the California...

URL: http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/09/21/us-california-carbon-idUSBRE88K0A820120921?feedType=RSS&feedName=environmentNews&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+reuters%2Fenvironment+%28News+%2F+US+%2F+Environment%29

Avian Malaria in Alaska: The Climate Change Connection

Climate Central: A team of biologists has just announced the first documented case of bird-to-bird malaria transmission in Alaska. Writing in the journal PLOS ONE, they've shown that this frequently fatal avian illness, which is normally associated with the tropics and temperate areas, may be expanding its range. Fortunately, avian malaria doesn't affect humans, co-author Ravinder Sehgal of San Francisco State University said, but the findings are particularly significant from a bird conservation as well as a climate...

URL: http://www.climatecentral.org/news/arctic-malaria-in-birds-the-climate-change-connection-15022

Climate change threatens children's health

Washington Post: The Sept. 18 Health & Science article "Severe strain of childhood virus emerges' noted that an unusual form of hand, foot and mouth disease has hit the United States. My pediatric practice in Alexandria saw three times as many children with this disease in the first half of this year as in all of 2011. These children had larger and more extensive lesions than in typical cases of Coxsackie virus, which causes the disease. The article noted that researchers believe that last year's unusually...

URL: http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/climate-change-threatens-childrens-health/2012/09/20/0b1f360e-0279-11e2-9132-f2750cd65f97_story.html

Huge Greenland iceberg starts to go to pieces

NBC: Off the coast of northwest Greenland, an enormous iceberg is beginning to go to pieces. The huge ice chunk, named PII-2012, was originally part of the Petermann Glacier, but broke away from the glacier in mid-July in a process called calving. By the end of July the Manhattan-size chunk of ice had nearly reached the mouth of a fjord that opens on the Nares Strait, a narrow stretch of ocean that separates Greenland from Canada. Science news from NBCNews.com OneWorld via YouTube Science can...

URL: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/49066853/ns/technology_and_science-science/

Report: Climate change means taxpayers could pay for more disaster cleanups

The Hill: A trend of insurance companies backing away from extreme-weather-threatened regions might leave taxpayers on the hook for more natural disaster cleanup efforts, according to a report released Thursday. This past summer's wildfires in the West and drought in the Midwest showed extreme weather affects more than just coastal regions, Mindy Lubber, president of Ceres, the business sustainability group that published the report, said in a Thursday conference call. Lubber said Congress "needs to...

URL: http://thehill.com/blogs/e2-wire/e2-wire/250697-report-taxpayers-may-pay-for-more-disaster-cleanups

EU to work with China on carbon cutting projects

BusinessGreen: The EU yesterday signed a financing deal with China to help the world's largest emitter of CO2 work on ways to transition to a low-carbon economy, including the introduction of carbon trading systems. The two have clashed over environmental issues in the recent past, with Beijing complaining over an EU probe into Chinese companies alleged dumping low cost solar panels and refusing to comply with requirements for their airlines to pay for carbon emitted during flights in and out of Europe. However,...

URL: http://www.businessgreen.com/bg/news/2207134/eu-to-work-with-china-on-carbon-cutting-projects?WT.rss_f=Home&WT.rss_a=EU+to+work+with+China+on+carbon+cutting+projects

Oil and gas drillers have injected more than 10 trillion gallons of wastewater into the earth

ProPublica: On a cold, overcast afternoon in January 2003, two tanker trucks backed up to an injection well site in a pasture outside Rosharon, Texas. There, under a steel shed, they began to unload thousands of gallons of wastewater for burial deep beneath the earth. The waste -- the byproduct of oil and gas drilling -- was described in regulatory documents as a benign mixture of salt and water. But as the liquid rushed from the trucks, it released a billowing vapor of far more volatile materials, including...

URL: http://www.propublica.org/article/trillion-gallon-loophole-lax-rules-for-drillers-that-inject-pollutants
Enclosure: http://www.propublica.org/images/ngen/gypsy_big_image/csb_explosion_truck_630x420_120919.jpg

Drought Grows, Forecast to Persist Through Early Winter

Climate Central: The massive and widespread 2012 drought that has gripped the nation since the spring refuses to die, according to the latest report from the U.S. Drought Monitor -- and in fact, it's expanded a little: as of September 18, 64.82 percent of the contiguous U.S. was suffering from at least moderate drought, slightly more than the 64.16 percent reported a week earlier, enough of a gain to set a new record for this drought category. At the same time, NOAA released its seasonal drought outlook for the...

URL: http://www.climatecentral.org/news/drought-expands-again-as-forecasts-show-little-relief-ahead-15024?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+climatecentral%2FdjOO+Climate+Central+-+Full+Feed
Enclosure: http://www.climatecentral.org/images/sized/images/uploads/news/9_20_12_andrew_droughtoutlook-425x329.gif

Video: Debating the Complex Impacts of Shale Gas Fracking

Yale Environment 360: At a panel discussion at the Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies this week, a group of experts tackled the controversial drilling method known as hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, and complex questions about impacts on the environment, human health, and the U.S.'s energy future. During the discussion, former Shell Oil president John Hofmeister said natural gas made accessible by fracking is more than a "bridge fuel." Natural gas, he said, is "a highway to the future, and yes, a highway...

URL: http://e360.yale.edu/digest/video_debating_the_complex_impacts_of_shale_gas_fracking/3629/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+YaleEnvironment360+%28Yale+Environment+360%29
Enclosure: http://youtu.be/WvUP7gsBV4Q

United States: Three Mile Island reactor shuts down unexpectedly

NBC: A reactor at Three Mile Island, the site of the nation's worst nuclear accident, shut down unexpectedly on Thursday afternoon when a coolant pump tripped and steam was released, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission told NBC News. The system tripped when "the pump stopped operating and created a power/flow imbalance," said NRC spokesman Neil Sheehan. The plant responded as designed and is stable with no impact on public health or safety, added NRC spokeswoman Diane Screnci. If any radiation...

URL: http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/09/20/13992579-three-mile-island-nuclear-reactor-shuts-down-unexpectedly?lite
Enclosure: http://msnbcmedia.msn.com/j/MSNBC/Components/Photo/_new/g-cvr-110414-nuke-8a.photoblog600.jpg

Natural gas fracking fires protest over pollution fears

Guardian: Western Pennsylvania is considered the birthplace of commercial oil drilling. On 27 August 1859, Edwin Drake struck oil in Titusville, Pennsylvania, and changed the course of history. Now, people there are busy trying to stop wells, and the increasingly pervasive drilling practice known as fracking. Fracking is the popular term for hydraulic fracturing, the technique used to extract natural gas from deep beneath the earth's surface. Fracking is promoted by the gas industry as the key to escaping...

URL: http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/sep/20/natural-gas-fracking-fires-protest
Enclosure: http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Guardian/Pix/pictures/2012/9/20/1348175767736/madelineffitch.jpg

Ice-Free Arctic Is “Uncharted Territory”

Inter Press Service: The melt of Arctic sea ice has reached its lowest point this year, shrinking 18 percent from last year`s near-record low. Summer ice this year is half what it was 30 years ago and is now affecting weather patterns. The massive declines in ice in recent summers have shocked scientists and Arctic experts. Some predict that in just a few years we will witness an event that hasn`t happened in millions of years: the complete loss of summer ice. "We are now in uncharted territory," said Mark Serreze,...

URL: http://www.ipsnews.net/2012/09/ice-free-arctic-is-uncharted-territory/
Enclosure: http://ipsnews-net.wpengine.netdna-cdn.com/Library/2012/09/Arctic_sea_ice_extent_timeline_640-590x472.jpg

A Delay in New York's Fracking Decision?

New York Times: New York State's top environmental official just announced that he has asked the state health commissioner to assess the potential health impacts from allowing high-volume hydraulic fracturing in New York State. The environmental commissioner, Joe Martens, said he was rejecting requests from various groups for an independent health study. "While the review will be informed by outside perspectives on the science of hydrofracking, the decision-making will remain a governmental responsibility," he...

URL: http://green.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/09/20/a-delay-in-new-yorks-fracking-decision/

To Protect Species And Ecosystems Major Changes Are Needed

redOrbit: A landmark study has found that climate change is likely to have a major impact on Australia's plants, animals and ecosystems that will present significant challenges to the conservation of Australia's biodiversity. The comprehensive study by CSIRO highlights the sensitivity of Australia's species and ecosystems to climate change, and the need for new ways of thinking about biodiversity conservation. "Climate change is likely to start to transform some of Australia's natural landscapes by 2030,"...

URL: http://www.redorbit.com/news/science/1112696885/protect-species-ecosystems-changes-needed-091912/
Enclosure: http://www.redorbit.com/media/uploads/2012/09/To-Protect-Species-And-Ecosystems-Major-Changes-Are-Needed-617x416.jpg

Bechtel President of Renewables Discusses Ivanpah

 The Ivanpah Solar Electric Generating System, expected to be the largest solar thermal project in the world when it comes online next year, reached the halfway mark of construction in August. Last week at Solar Power International in Orlando, Fla., I sat down with Jim Ivany, president of Bechtel's Renewable Power business, to discuss the company's work on the project and the future of Concentrating Solar Power (CSP) in the U.S.

URL: http://www.renewableenergyworld.com/rea/news/article/2012/09/bechtel-president-of-renewables-discusses-ivanpah?cmpid=rss

Southern Africa Extends Solar Presence at SPI

 Eight solar power firm owners and operators from five Southern African countries attended the Solar Power International (SPI) conference in Orlando, Florida last week. Firm owners from Botswana, Zambia, South Africa, Mozambique and Namibia met with potential U.S. technology and investment partners, heard from industry experts on the state of the industry, and checked out the latest products on the market from the more than 1,200 exhibitors at the conference. Working with Maryland-based Elan International, the delegates' attendance at the conference was facilitated by the U.S. Embassy in Botswana and the U.S. Agency for International Development's Southern Africa Trade Hub.

URL: http://www.renewableenergyworld.com/rea/news/article/2012/09/southern-africa-extends-solar-presence-at-spi?cmpid=rss

Wildfires have grown larger, more frequent

Press-Enterprise: An analysis of fire records going back to 1970 found that the largest fires have occurred in the last decade, a finding that points in part to the effects of climate change, researchers said. What`s more, according to the Climate Central study of U.S. Forest Service data, the fire season is now 75 days longer than it was in the 1970s, it was reported in the Press-Enterprise today. This is an interactive map of active wildfires from Climate Central. A typical fire season used to run mid-May...

URL: http://blog.pe.com/environment/2012/09/19/climate-change-wildfires-have-grown-larger-more-frequent/

Drought area expands in northern U.S., eases in south

Reuters: The worst drought to hit the United States in a half century expanded in the upper Midwest and northern Plains states in the past week due to warmer- and drier-than-normal weather, but loosened its grip on some central and southern areas of the country. Nearly 65 percent of the contiguous United States were under at least "moderate" drought as of September 18, up from about 64 percent a week earlier, according to the Drought Monitor, a weekly compilation of data gathered by federal and academic...

URL: http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/09/20/us-usa-drought-idUSBRE88J0UU20120920?feedType=RSS&feedName=environmentNews&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+reuters%2Fenvironment+%28News+%2F+US+%2F+Environment%29
Enclosure: http://s1.reutersmedia.net/resources/r/?m=02&d=20120920&t=2&i=654991585&w=460&fh=&fw=&ll=&pl=&r=CBRE88J16NK00

Arctic sea ice melts to lowest level on record

Reuters: Arctic sea ice, a key indicator of climate change, melted to its lowest level on record this year before beginning its autumnal freeze, researchers at the U.S. National Snow and Ice Data Center said on Wednesday. The extent of ice probably hit its low point on Sept. 16, when it covered 1.32 million square miles (3.42 million square km) of the Arctic Ocean, the smallest amount since satellite records began 33 years ago. Changing weather conditions could further shrink the extent, the center...

URL: http://in.reuters.com/article/2012/09/19/arctic-ice-idINL1E8KJB5F20120919

Deeper CO2 Cuts Needed to Save Corals

Inter Press Service: Limiting climate change to two degrees C won`t save most coral reefs, according to new, state-of-the-art research. About 70 percent of corals are projected to suffer from long-term degradation by 2030 with two degrees C of warming, the first comprehensive global survey reported Sunday in the journal Nature Climate Change. The planet will get far hotter than two degrees C based on current commitments by countries to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions, mainly from burning oil, gas and coal....

URL: http://www.ipsnews.net/2012/09/deeper-co2-cuts-needed-to-save-corals/
Enclosure: http://ipsnews-net.wpengine.netdna-cdn.com/Library/2012/09/corals_640-629x418.jpg

Arctic sea ice is 'toast' as old record shattered

Mongabay: Some twenty days after breaking the record for the lowest sea ice extent, the Arctic sea ice has hit a new rock bottom and finally begun its seasonal recovery. In the end, the Arctic sea ice extent fell to just 3.4 million square kilometers (1.32 million square miles) when only a few months ago scientists were wondering if it would break the 4 million square kilometers. The speed of the sea ice decline due to climate change has outpaced all the computer models, overrun all expert predictions, and...

URL: http://news.mongabay.com/2012/0919-hance-arctic-seaice-minimum.html
Enclosure: http://s3.amazonaws.com/mongabay-images/12/lowseaiceextent.2012.568.jpg

Insurers Pressed to Take Lead in Tempering Climate Risk

Bloomberg: U.S. property-casualty insurers, a group that includes Travelers Cos. (TRV) and Allstate Corp. (ALL), should take a leadership role in preparing for climate-change risks as severe weather becomes more frequent, a lobbying group said. "Insurers have historically been influential in motivating society to reduce risks, whether by advocating for smoke detectors in buildings or safety restraints in vehicles," Boston-based Ceres said today in a report. "Insurers have much to offer, and much at stake,...

URL: http://www.businessweek.com/news/2012-09-20/insurers-pressed-to-take-lead-in-tempering-climate-risk

UK needs more ambitious electric car grant scheme: MPs

Reuters: Britain needs a more ambitious programme to encourage the uptake of low-carbon vehicles, as sales of the cars have disappointed, a committee made up of UK Members of Parliament said on Thursday. As part of its aim to reduce carbon dioxide emissions to 80 percent below 1990 levels by 2050, the government has offered 25 percent off the price of a plug-in electric car capped at 5,000 pounds. Plug-in cars, such as the Chevrolet Volt, Nissan Leaf, Toyota Prius and Vauxhall Ampera, typically cost...

URL: http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/09/19/us-britain-plugins-idUSBRE88I1J120120919?feedType=RSS&feedName=environmentNews&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+reuters%2Fenvironment+%28News+%2F+US+%2F+Environment%29
Enclosure: http://s1.reutersmedia.net/resources/r/?m=02&d=20120919&t=2&i=654743010&w=460&fh=&fw=&ll=&pl=&r=CBRE88I1S5A00

Climate change blamed as Arctic sea ice melts to all-time low

Associated Press: In a critical climate indicator showing an ever warming world, the amount of ice in the Arctic Ocean shrank to an all-time low this year, obliterating old records. The ice cap at the North Pole measured 3.42 million square kilometres on Sunday. That's 18 per cent smaller than the previous record of 4.17 million square kilometres set in 2007, according to the National Snow and Ice Data Center in Boulder, Colo. Records go back to 1979 based on satellite tracking. "On top of that, we're smashing...

URL: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/world/climate-change-blamed-as-arctic-sea-ice-melts-to-all-time-low/article4555852/?cmpid=rss1&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+TheGlobeAndMail-Front+%28The+Globe+and+Mail+-+Latest+News%29

Glut of Offsets Threatens Global Carbon Market

Environmental leader: The Kyoto Protocol`s emissions offset market is oversupplied by 13 billion metric tons of carbon dioxide, more than 1,000 times greater than the anticipated demand of 11.5 million mt, according to analysis by Thomson Reuters Point Carbon. The surplus in the first Kyoto commitment period (2008-2012) could compound in the second phase, which kicks off next year, leading to a glut as large as 16.2 gigatons and threatening the global carbon market over the long term. If Australia and New Zealand do...

URL: http://www.environmentalleader.com/2012/09/18/glut-of-offsets-threatens-global-carbon-market/

MPs' call to halt Arctic drilling amid safety concerns

BBC: A committee of MPs has called for a halt on drilling for oil and gas in the Arctic until safety is improved. They say current techniques for dealing with any spill do not inspire confidence. The Environmental Audit Committee fears that a spill could have caused unprecedented environmental damage. The MPs want to see a standard pan-Arctic spill response standard, unlimited liability for firms and an Arctic environmental sanctuary. But the UK has no power over the Arctic - and Arctic states...

URL: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-19652326#sa-ns_mchannel=rss&ns_source=PublicRSS20-sa
Enclosure: http://news.bbcimg.co.uk/media/images/62994000/jpg/_62994943_62994941.jpg

Coal-fired Montana power plant to be mothballed due to EPA rules: company

Reuters: A coal-fired power plant in Billings, Montana, will be mothballed starting in April 2015 because it will cost too much to comply with new emissions reductions required by the government, plant owner and operator PPL Montana said on Wednesday. The company plans to operate the 154-megawatt J.E. Corette power plant until requirements of the Environmental Protection Agency's Mercury and Air Toxics Standard take effect in April 2015. "Our detailed analysis has shown that to meet the emission reductions...

URL: http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/09/20/us-utilities-operations-ppl-montana-idUSBRE88J02920120920?feedType=RSS&feedName=environmentNews&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+reuters%2Fenvironment+%28News+%2F+US+%2F+Environment%29

Starting to tackle climate change

The Hill: The presidential campaign has produced only one memorable line about the environment so far -- and it was played for laughs. Republican contender Mitt Romney told his party's convention that "President Obama promised to begin to slow the rise of the oceans" -- then paused for his audience to guffaw. Romney may have sounded dismissive to anyone who takes climate change seriously. But the Democrats haven't been much better. At the Democratic National Convention, President Obama offered just...

URL: http://thehill.com/blogs/congress-blog/energy-a-environment/250603-starting-to-tackle-climate-change

EU U-turn spells doom for food-based biofuels boom

Reuters: European Union plans to cap the use of food-based biofuels are a major setback for an industry once seen playing a central role in the fight against climate change, but now more often cast as the villain following a series of global food price spikes. Industry sources and analysts predict the plan could trigger a wave of plant closures across Europe while questioning whether so-called advanced biofuels, often made from waste products, can play the greater role now envisioned by the European Commission....

URL: http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/09/20/us-biofuels-europe-idUSBRE88J0R820120920?feedType=RSS&feedName=environmentNews&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+reuters%2Fenvironment+%28News+%2F+US+%2F+Environment%29

Displaced Tortoises for Solar in Mojave Roils Environmentalists

Bloomberg: It's a 106-degree Fahrenheit day in the Mojave Desert. Heat devils dance off chocolate-hued Clark Mountain on the horizon. Air-conditioned cars zip along Interstate 15 toward Las Vegas. And inside a chain-link pen covered to keep out predators are scores of rare, threatened, sand-colored desert tortoises. Their captivity helps show how complicated it is to combat climate change without collateral damage. The foot-long (30-centimeter) creatures are being removed from their burrows for a project to...

URL: http://www.renewableenergyworld.com/rea/news/article/2012/09/displaced-tortoises-for-solar-in-mojave-roils-environmentalists?cmpid=rss

Arctic ice shrinks to all-time low; half 1980 size

Associated Press: In a critical climate indicator showing an ever warming world, the amount of ice in the Arctic Ocean shrank to an all-time low this year, obliterating old records. The ice cap at the North Pole measured 1.32 million square miles on Sunday. That's 18 percent smaller than the previous record of 1.61 million square miles set in 2007, according to the National Snow and Ice Data Center in Boulder, Colo. Records go back to 1979 based on satellite tracking. "On top of that, we're smashing a record that...

URL: http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_SCI_ARCTIC_SEA_ICE?SITE=TXDAM&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT
Enclosure: http://nsidc.org/

Report: U.S. Energy Policy Is "All Wet" When It Comes To Hidden Costs

Yahoo!: Huge demands on increasingly scarce water are a major hidden cost of a "business as usual" approach to American electricity generation that needs to be more fully understood by policymakers and the public, according to a new Synapse Energy Economics, Inc. report prepared for the nonprofit and nonpartisan Civil Society Institute (CSI) and the Environmental Working Group (EWG). The new analysis, "The Hidden Costs of Electricity: Comparing the Hidden Costs of Power Generation Fuels," is available...

URL: http://news.yahoo.com/report-u-energy-policy-wet-comes-hidden-costs-150000899.html

Climate change threatens nature from coffee to Arctic fox-forum

Reuters: Climate change is a threat to everything from coffee plantations to Arctic foxes and even a moderate rise in world temperatures will be damaging for plants and animals in some regions, experts said on Wednesday. Habitats such as coral reefs or the Arctic region were among the most vulnerable to global warming, scientists said at a conference in Lillehammer, south Norway, organized by the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF). Almost 200 governments agreed in 2010 to a goal of limiting...

URL: http://planetark.org/enviro-news/item/66609

Displaced Tortoises for Solar in Mojave Roils Environmentalists

 It's a 106-degree Fahrenheit day in the Mojave Desert. Heat devils dance off chocolate-hued Clark Mountain on the horizon. Air-conditioned cars zip along Interstate 15 toward Las Vegas. And inside a chain-link pen covered to keep out predators are scores of rare, threatened, sand-colored desert tortoises. Their captivity helps show how complicated it is to combat climate change without collateral damage. The foot-long (30-centimeter) creatures are being removed from their burrows for a project to harvest solar energy in the California desert. Trucks groan down sunbaked roads, cranes pivot with 750-pound (340-kilogram) mirrors and mechanical post-pounders drive steel pylons into the packed desert floor, destroying their habitat.

URL: http://www.renewableenergyworld.com/rea/news/article/2012/09/displaced-tortoises-for-solar-in-mojave-roils-environmentalists?cmpid=rss

Shale Gas: Cutting Carbon Emissions While Remaining Controversial

Forbes: Presidential politics these days is about improving economic production and job creation. And while the focus lately is on which half of the country is more entitled to the federal pie, the attention should shift in part to the unyielding trends that now permeate the climate change debate. As recent data shows, cutting the level of heat-trapping emissions and enhancing economic productivity are not mutually exclusive. In fact, the emergence of the shale gas revolution has not only reduced carbon...

URL: http://www.forbes.com/sites/kensilverstein/2012/09/20/shale-gas-cutting-carbon-emissions-while-remaining-controversial/

Green Tech States Are Not Necessarily Democratic

 According to a new report by DBL Investors, a surprising number of clean technology projects are springing up in politically "red" states. The report, entitled "Red, White and Green: The Truest Colors of America's Clean Tech Jobs," is authored by Nancy Pfund and Michael Lazar and was released at SPI this week.

URL: http://www.renewableenergyworld.com/rea/news/article/2012/09/green-tech-states-are-not-necessarily-democratic?cmpid=rss

US Forest mortality declines due to lack of food for mountain pine beetle

Environmental News Network: Forests are not only threatened by man-made decisions like logging and development expansion, but also by insect infestation. From beetles to forest weevils, moths to borers and timber worms, insects cost millions of dollars each year in forest destruction from eating and living in these trees. Insects and diseases are important in maintaining a balance between healthy, functioning forests and catastrophic outbreaks and forest loss. These critical roles affect more than 750 million acres of forest...

URL: http://www.enn.com/climate/article/44972?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+ClimateChangeNews-Enn+%28Climate+Change+News+-+ENN%29

EU agrees carbon deal with China, world's biggest emitter

Reuters: China, the world's biggest carbon dioxide emitter, has struck a deal to work with the European Union to cut greenhouse gases through projects including the development of Chinese emissions trading schemes, the European Commission said on Thursday. The European Union and China have frequently clashed over climate policy and Beijing has flouted EU law requiring all airlines using European airports to pay for their emissions through the EU's Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS). At the same time, the...

URL: http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/09/20/us-eu-china-carbon-idUSBRE88J0D820120920?feedType=RSS&feedName=environmentNews&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+reuters%2Fenvironment+%28News+%2F+US+%2F+Environment%29

Glacier Drainage

Environmental News Network: Fast-flowing and narrow glaciers have the potential to trigger massive changes in the Antarctic ice sheet and contribute to rapid ice-sheet decay and sea-level rise, a new study has found. These glaciers are suspected to act as a sort of stream that drain off inland ice sheets. Research results published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences reveal in more detail than ever before how warming waters in the Southern Ocean are connected intimately with the movement and thinning...

URL: http://www.enn.com/climate/article/44974?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+ClimateChangeNews-Enn+%28Climate+Change+News+-+ENN%29

Yvo De Boer: Climate change talks need greater clarity

RTCC: The former head of the UN Climate talks (UNFCCC) believes confusion over the aim of the negotiations and the meaning of last year`s Durban Platform agreement need to be urgently addressed. Speaking at a climate communication event hosted by the Global Campaign for Climate Action (GCCA), Yvo De Boer called for clarity on the goals of the international talks, which resume in Doha on November 26, arguing that without this world leaders and the general public would continue to lose interest in the...

URL: http://www.rtcc.org/policy/yvo-de-boer-climate-change-talks-need-greater-clarity/
Enclosure: http://www.rtcc.org/files/2012/09/de-boer-600.jpg

Via You Tube, a New Conservation Genre

New York Times: The drought of 2012, which continues to spread westward, is making its mark on the national consciousness in many ways. Rising food prices. Interrupted livelihoods. Fields of stunted, desiccated crops. All of this dryness has resonance in our video culture. Just go to You Tube and look at the proliferation of public service announcements on water conservation. Making one of these seems to be the school project du jour these days. But in this array there are some standouts, like Oklahoma City`s...

URL: http://green.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/09/20/via-you-tube-a-new-conservation-genre/
Enclosure: http://youtu.be/RZ0jQqm5JXg

Forests and Climate Change: a Combustible Combination

Forbes: Smokey Bear's advisories aside, wildfires are a normal part of forest ecology. Fire serves to clear out old trees and excess underbrush so younger trees can grow. You know, textbook "circle of life." But the cumulative list of manmade alterations to forests, to land, and to climate is rendering the benefits of forest fires all but moot in many places, as this Nature piece illustrates: Across the American west, the area burned each year has increased significantly over the past several decades...

URL: http://www.forbes.com/sites/johnmcquaid/2012/09/20/forests-and-climate-change-a-combustible-combination/

EU officials hold preliminary talks on propping up carbon market

Reuters: EU technical experts on Wednesday held a preliminary discussion on proposals to prop up the EU Emissions Trading Scheme, with Poland standing out as the sharpest opponent, while the majority of nations took no firm position, EU sources said. The closed-door meeting did not get as far as a numbers debate about how many allowances should be withheld from the next stage of the Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) beginning next year, one source said on condition of anonymity. Another said "there were...

URL: http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/09/19/eu-ets-idUSL5E8KJKBE20120919

Canada: Koch Brothers Cashing In 220,000 Acres of Tar Sands Holdings

Inside Climate News: A Canadian division of Koch Industries is reviewing a range of offers to buy up to 220,000 net acres of its many undeveloped oil sands properties within Alberta's vast reserves of oil sands. The company, Calgary-based Koch Oil Sands Operating ULC, said in June it was looking for strategic investors to help accelerate production on six properties held by the limited partnership Koch Exploration Canada. The company later said it would entertain offers to acquire the entire Koch Exploration partnership...

URL: http://insideclimatenews.org/news/20120919/koch-brothers-industries-canadian-tar-sands-properties-keystone-xl-pipeline-alberta-dilbit-climate-skeptics?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+solveclimate%2Fblog+%28InsideClimate+News%29
Enclosure: http://insideclimatenews.org/sites/default/files/imagecache/home_page_slideshow/Koch-Industries_0.jpg

Cost Cutting: Is QBotix the BOS Innovation Solar Needs?

 It's an ongoing debate: Some experts believe that the solar industry will progress with efficiency improvements, while other think completely new technology is the answer. Wasiq Bokhari is on team technology. He is the CEO and founder of QBotix – a company touting a new tracking innovation that Bokhari believes can significantly increase margins and allow for easier installation and increased deployment.

URL: http://www.renewableenergyworld.com/rea/news/article/2012/09/cost-cutting-is-qbotix-the-bos-innovation-solar-needs?cmpid=rss

Securing Skills for a Successful Offshore Wind Industry

 Trade group RenewableUK has said that the offshore wind and marine energy sector could support 88,000 jobs in the UK by 2021, up from approximately 10,600 at present. In order to reach this target the right policies and financial conditions must be in place and, as obvious as it may seem, there will need to be an adequate amount of skilled recruits to fill these jobs.

URL: http://www.renewableenergyworld.com/rea/news/article/2012/09/securing-skills-for-offshore-wind?cmpid=rss

The Demonization of Clean Tech: The Five Biggest Myths

 The case for technologies that harness renewable resources, improve efficiency, and reduce emissions has never been stronger, and the industry known as clean tech continues to grow at a staggering pace – global revenues for the "Big Three" sectors of wind power, solar PV, and biofuels hit $246.1 billion in 2011 after a decade of annual growth averaging more than 30 percent. But such an all-encompassing classification – spanning clean energy, advanced transportation, advanced materials, and clean water technologies – has lately made the industry an easy target for opposition, especially in the U.S., where divisive national politics have made pragmatism a rare commodity.

URL: http://www.renewableenergyworld.com/rea/news/article/2012/09/the-demonization-of-clean-tech-the-five-biggest-myths?cmpid=rss

Ban drilling say MPs as 'wake up call' shows Arctic ice melt could cause colder winters in UK

Telegraph: The Environmental Audit Committee warned that the melting of sea ice is now happening so fast the Arctic could be ice free in summer "in the next few years'. Joan Whalley, Chairwoman of the committee, said the UK weather pattern will be affected by the huge amount of fresh, cold water melting into the sea. "There is evidence that the melting Arctic may be affecting the gulf stream currents that bring warmth to the UK and Northern Europe and so may be behind the unusually cold winters that have...

URL: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/earthnews/9553548/Ban-drilling-say-MPs-as-wake-up-call-shows-Arctic-ice-melt-could-cause-colder-winters-in-UK.html
Enclosure: http://i.telegraph.co.uk/multimedia/archive/02152/arc_2152436b.jpg

How to survive mass extinction

Guardian: That the last of the non-avian dinosaurs died out some 65.5 million years ago is not controversial. That this occurred largely owing to a dirty great asteroid smashing into the sea off of Mexico is also not in doubt. What remains the subject of much discussion, however, is why they went and other animals did not, or, more specifically, how do you survive a mass extinction? First off, the elephant in the room: luck. Often overlooked, this can play a major role. Zoos aside, all lemurs live in Madagascar,...

URL: http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/lost-worlds/2012/sep/20/dinosaurs-fossils

Get Ready for Heat-Pump Water Heaters

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New federal regulations will require heat-pump models for larger electric water heaters in 2015

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[](http://www.greenbuildingadvisor.com/blogs/dept/energy-solutions/get-ready-heat-pump-water-heaters)

Last week I wrote about ["hybrid" water heaters](http://www.greenbuildingadvisor.com/blogs/dept/energy-solutions/hybrid-water-heaters), a relatively new type of water heater that includes features of both storage and tankless models. This week I'll cover another type of water heater that is also (confusingly) referred to as "hybrid": heat-pump water heaters. These produce over twice as much hot water for each unit of electricity consumed as any other type of electric water heater (storage or tankless).

URL: http://www.greenbuildingadvisor.com/blogs/dept/energy-solutions/get-ready-heat-pump-water-heaters

Record minimum for Arctic sea ice

BBC: Arctic sea ice has reached its minimum extent for the year, setting a record for the lowest summer cover since satellite data collection began. The 2012 extent has fallen to 3.41 million sq km (1.32 million sq mi) - 50% lower than the 1979-2000 average. Arctic sea ice has long been regarded as a sensitive indicator of changes in the climate. Scientists who have been analysing the startling melt think it is part of a fundamental change. "We are now in uncharted territory," said Mark Serreze,...

URL: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-19652329#sa-ns_mchannel=rss&ns_source=PublicRSS20-sa
Enclosure: http://news.bbcimg.co.uk/media/images/62401000/jpg/_62401223_icebergsarcticbbc.jpg

Government touts million pound boost for 'closed-loop economy'

BusinessGreen: The government is set to launch a £1.25m competition that aims to reduce businesses' reliance on raw materials that could face supply risks, to help boost the "circular economy". The Technology Strategy Board (TSB) announced today that it will run two competitions, offering grant funding of up to £25,000 for individual projects examining how products could have a lower environmental impact. This competitions will be open between the end of October and the end of March 2013, seeking innovative...

URL: http://www.businessgreen.com/bg/news/2206601/government-touts-multimillion-pound-boost-for-closedloop-economy?WT.rss_f=Home&WT.rss_a=Government+touts+million+pound+boost+for+%27closed-loop+economy%27

A Closer Look at Arctic Sea Ice Melt and Extreme Weather

Climate Central: With Arctic sea ice reaching its lowest level in the satellite record after an astonishingly rapid summer melt, the question of whether disappearing sea ice might lead to more extreme winters in Europe and North America needs more scrutiny. In an article on September 12, I reported on a 2012 paper by Jennifer Francis of Rutgers University and Stephen Vavrus of the University of Wisconsin, which showed that the loss of Arctic summer sea ice cover is adding enough heat to the ocean and atmosphere...

URL: http://www.climatecentral.org/blogs/closer-look-at-arctic-sea-ice-melt-and-extreme-weather-15013?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+climatecentral%2FdjOO+Climate+Central+-+Full+Feed
Enclosure: http://www.climatecentral.org/images/uploads/blogs/9_18_12_andrew_jetstreamnasaimg.jpeg

Nader: Capitol Hill needs substantive climate change debate

The Hill: Lawmakers, notably Democrats, are "running away from the issue" of climate change, consumer advocate and former Green Party presidential candidate Ralph Nader said Tuesday. Nader, who was speaking at a National Press Club event in Washington, D.C., criticized President Obama for giving lip service to the topic in his Democratic National Convention speech earlier this month. "There couldn't have been a more defensive statement by President Obama than to say finally – he didn't mention it in...

URL: http://thehill.com/blogs/e2-wire/e2-wire/250337-nader-capitol-hill-needs-substantive-climate-change-debate

United States: Climate change to fuel northern spread of avian malaria

PhysOrg: Malaria has been found in birds in parts of Alaska, and global climate change will drive it even farther north, according to a new study published today in the journal PLOS ONE. The spread could prove devastating to arctic bird species that have never encountered the disease and thus have no resistance to it, said San Francisco State University Associate Professor of Biology Ravinder Sehgal, one of the study's co-authors. It may also help scientists understand the effects of climate change on...

URL: http://phys.org/news/2012-09-climate-fuel-northern-avian-malaria.html

Q&A: A New Era of Citizen Action Is Dawning

Inter Press Service: The Global Civil Society Network CIVICUS: World Alliance for Citizen Participation has a new secretary general -- Dhananjayan (Danny) Sriskandarajah, who was appointed Monday by the board of directors following the CIVICUS World Assembly in Montreal. CIVICUS is a global alliance of organisations and individuals that strives to strengthen citizen action and civil society, particularly in regions of the world where freedom of association is limited or threatened. Danny Sriskandarajah, previously...

URL: http://www.ipsnews.net/2012/09/qa-a-new-era-of-citizen-action-is-dawning/